SEATTLE — SpaceX's billionaire founder, Elon Musk, says a new Seattle engineering office will take the lead in developing next-generation satellites for delivering Internet access worldwide. "We're going to try and do for satellites what we've done for rockets," Musk told Bloomberg News in an interview. The office would eventually employ several hundred to 1,000 workers, he said. Further details are to be revealed Friday.
Musk's comments fill in another piece of the puzzle for a grand plan that would involve launching hundreds of small satellites to provide low-cost, "unfettered" access to the Internet on a global scale. Musk touched on the plan in November, and at that time he promised to provide details two or three months later. Also around that time, Seattle-based GeekWire shed light on SpaceX's plans to hire engineers in the Seattle area, as well as the California-based company's business license filing for an office in Bellevue, Washington, not far from Microsoft's main campus.
Musk has built privately held SpaceX into a multibillion-dollar launch company. Over the weekend, SpaceX launched a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station for NASA and conducted an ambitious rocket-landing experiment.
IN-DEPTH
- SpaceX Is Working on Global Satellite Project
- Elon Musk's Image Takes on Steve Jobs' Aura
- SpaceX Rocket Launches Cargo, then Crash-Lands
